Nest Cam Watch Begins Again!

It's the end of February, which means it's once again the beginning of nest cam watch. This is when eagles and owls are beginning to lay their eggs. This can lead to a bit of drama, as the bald eagle couple in Decorah, Iowa, had to fend off a Great Horned owl couple that wanted to move into one of their nests. First one to lay an egg won, and the eagles now have control of the nest. They're now sitting on three eggs, and watchers are hoping the owl couple moved to the old nest (which still has a nest cam). Fort St. Vrain in Colorado has three eggs, as does the DNR eagle nest in Minnesota. A Great Horned Owl nest in Oklahoma City has three fuzzy hatchlings.

If you want to keep up with activities, there's a Facebook page for the Raptor Resource Project, which covers several nests (but the main news is usually the Decorah nest). There is also the Raptor Resource Project website with various links to nest cams. There's also a link to the discussion forums to keep up without having to watch the cams. Fort St. Vrain cam now has its own Facebook group. So does the MN DNR cam and MN Bound.

Peregrine falcons in the Midwest haven't returned to their nests yet, but Clara and Fernando in San Jose have three eggs already. They've had up to five in previous years, so they might not be done yet.

Until the eggs hatch, there's often not much to see, other than one or the other parent sitting on the eggs. But each nest is different. The Decorah couple usually has disagreements about stick placement in the "crib rails", and watchers have decided that Dad is a stick fanatic. He often brings in very large sticks. It's also interesting to catch the shift changes. In the video link Dad takes over from Mom, and you can see him carefully ball his talons so the egg isn't damaged. Since there are still snowstorms this time of year, it can sometimes be hard to watch. Fort St. Vrain has lost chicks to storms in past years and seeing the nest surrounded by snow can be worrying for many watchers.

The excitement for Minnesota watchers has begun with the first hatch at the DNR nest. That nest started in January. It usually takes 35 days until hatch, so for nests like Decorah which just finished laying eggs, fuzzballs won't appear until March. The next egg in that nest should hatch within a day or so, but meanwhile every feeding of this hatchling is watched and discussed.

I've been watching nest cams for a long time, and that experience plus knowing where to find answers to other questions came in handy when I wrote "Search And Rescue", a short story released last August by Amber Quill Press. In it, nest cam watchers report a chick fallen from an eagle nest, and the wildlife rescuer finds a bit more than she expected - a feathered being not seen outside of fantasy.

"Search And Rescue" can be found at Amber Quill Press in several formats as well as at Amazon for Kindle, B&N for Nook, and at Kobo.

On Libraries and Nests

There are two topics I want to discuss this time. First is the topic that-never-seems-to-die. Libraries. It’s been discussed before in YA Authors You’ve Never Heard Of (see the topics in the left frame for earlier installments). But it seems as if every year some personality decides that there is no need for libraries. This year Terry Deary said that libraries have had their day and that they are “damaging the book industry”. This despite the fact that, as a UK author, Mr. Deary is paid every time his books are checked out from UK libraries under the Public Lending Right.

The “libraries are no longer needed” refrain isn’t new – I heard it from a university president in the 90s when the campus was trying to get a new library building built and his argument then was that all information would be online. (the campus finally did get a new building very laptop compatible which ended up being named after him. *sigh*). That refrain usually identifies the speaker as someone who thinks of a library as just a warehouse of books. But libraries don't contain only books. They also have DVDs, CDs, computers, and databases. Libraries are often centers of the community - they offer classes, story hours, homework help, and access to job and testing resources.

The “damaging the book industry” refrain has been popping up more and more lately in regard to ebooks. First the complainers were publishers who were unhappy that ebooks lasted longer than print books and wanted to limit how many times an ebook could be circulated before the libraries had to buy a new copy (did they not know that libraries have mending departments that repair damaged print books, thus upsetting publishers’ estimates of how many times a print book could be circulated before falling apart?). Then there are those authors who see every checkout of an ebook as a lost sale, both now and in the far future. Some have gone to the extreme of comparing libraries to ebook pirates (which is when I give up trying to reason with them, as they have passed the point of listening to any other side).

However, Mr. Deary didn't single out ebooks. Yet, as more than one blogger has pointed out, libraries and bookstores have coexisted for some time now. Indeed, in my town, the libraries (public, school and academic) buy books from (and thus support) the town's one independent bookstore.

It has been encouraging to see authors rally to the support of libraries. Julia Donaldson and other British authors responded to the article in Guardian, while Rita Meade listed ways to help local libraries.John Scalzi remembered how libraries contributed to his love of reading. The comments on his blog are also heartening. So many people responded with their own recollections of using their public or school libraries or their observations of how the usage of libraries have increased in this economy. Foz Meadows focused on disproving the economic side of Deary's argument as well as pointing out that libraries help create new readers.

This past January, the Pew Research Center released the results of a new survey on Americans' attitudes toward and expectations of public libraries. The summary can be found here. It appears that people feel that print books are still important but also want more digital services from their libraries (including more ebooks).

Where do you stand on the subject of libraries?

On to my second topic. Activity has started up once again at the various nest cams I watch. The eagles in Colorado have three eggs so far, as do the owls (also in Colorado), the falcons in San Jose have four eggs, the eagles in Decorah, IA, have laid one in a new nest (without a cam), while the eagles in MN are rearranging their nest. (see the video for tips on how to tell the two apart). Usually nesting among these groups would begin around March, but the seasons have been starting earlier every year. This can be difficult for some locations, as there are still snowstorms this time of year (both Colorado nests and mothers were covered with snow February 21st) and last year the eagle nest in Colorado lost all its chicks in one storm.

There is now a Facebook page for the Raptor Resource Project, which covers several nests. There is also the Raptor Resource Project website with various links to nest cams.

Distractions

The hardest part of writing sometimes is learning to avoid distractions. Some household distractions (pets/children insisting you play with them, phone calls, snow shoveling/leaf raking/lawn mowing, etc.) can be avoided by writing very early in the morning or very late at night. But that was in the days before the internet.

Email, Facebook, Google+, Twitter - you think you'll just check in "just for a moment", but then, when next you surface, hours have passed. At least with research you have an excuse.

One way of managing distractions is set them as part of a routine. First thing in the morning I'll check the Astronomy Picture of the Day for inspiration, a few of my favorite webcomics and two online newspapers for the news while I'm eating breakfast. Then there's a break to uncover the cockatoo's cage and feed her (she's not a morning bird). Email and Facebook checking is done while she decides if she wants to play. And then it's time to work.

Other distractions can be set up as rewards - so many words, or pages, or marketing/promotion time done and then you can check that blog or Facebook or emails.

Since it's March once again, my major distractions are the nest cams. I first blogged about my addiction to watching nest cams last year here (where you can find more details and links to various cams). For those keeping track, the Decorah eagles are currently sitting on three eggs, the Valmont, Colorado owls Dan and Snowflake have three as well, the San Francisco peregrines Dan and Lil have four eggs, and the San Jose peregrines Clara and EC have two (but at least two more are expected). There are also new cams installed in Minnesota and Wisconsin, such as one with sound on Great Spirit Bluff.

Fortunately, there are enough people reporting on nest activities either in the forums or via email and putting up Youtube videos of significant/important/funny events that I can check those in order to catch up rather than having screens open for hours on the various nests. Until the fuzzballs start wandering, that is.

What are some of your distractions and how do you manage them?

Or do they manage you? Ooo, shiny!


Done yet? Now can we play catch?

Nest Cam Addict

Some people have bird feeders, birdhouses and/or birdbaths in their back yards and can watch the local feathered wildlife from their windows. Thanks to the internet, I have an even closer window: nest cams.

There are cameras trained on hummingbird nests, storks, penguins, ospreys and hawks as well as my favorites - owls, bald eagles, and peregrine falcons. March through May is when most of the nests are active. Viewers can watch courting behavior ranging from bowing in falcons to eagles adding branches to their huge nests. Right now eagles and owls are sitting on their eggs, despite often being buried in snow. Since I'm in Minnesota, I tend to watch through the Raptor Resource Project, which has several owl, eagle and falcon nests. Midwest falcons are just returning to their nests for the season, but San Jose has a falcon couple currently sitting on three eggs, with a fourth expected in a day or two.

Watching a falcon or eagle sitting on eggs isn't exciting right now (other than shift changes), but after the eggs hatch there will be little fuzzballs learning how to sit up and how to walk. And once they start to walk - rather than just stomping around like little old men in fuzzy coats - those chicks have definite personalities. San Jose has a video archive of the 2007 season if you want to see. Compare "Growing Fast" to "Drain Expedition".

Some teachers include nest cams in their classrooms and their students watch the chicks grow up and learn how to fly. There are sad times, too. Chicks do die, or a parent can vanish over the season. There are often forums or mailing lists associated with the cams to discuss behavior or identify which bird is which (in raptors the females are larger than the males).

I have been able to use my experience in watching nest cams in a short story written for the Fencon VI program book. In "The Rescue" nest cam watchers report a chick fallen from an eagle nest, and the rescuer finds a bit more than she expected.

I'm looking forward to the new season of nest cam watching. Clara and Esteban Colbert in San Jose, Snowflake and Dan in Fort St. Vrain, CO, several eagle nests in Canada and Iowa - always something to see!

My name is Kathy, and I am a nest cam addict.